33 Raspberry Pi cluster

Raspberry Pi cannot be referenced as high processing power computer. But it has other benefits like small price and size. Josh Kiepert has been doing a doctoral research of data sharing for wireless networks. In order to simulate this he needed some processing power. The idea was to simulate this on Beowulf cluster – a group of computers that are identical and connected to network. They share tasks when solving complex problems. It seemed that Raspberry Pi could be a great candidate to build one. So he’s chosen 33 Raspberry Pi’s with 8GB memory cards. Each of them costs about $45 including memory card. He solved powering problem by designing his own power board that distributes power supple through GPIO.

The cluster of Raspberry Pi’s cannot compete with similar network of desktop computers. But seems that for dissertation work it is suitable as it gives enough performance for doing simulations.